YNET
A five-year custody battle ended recently when a 17-judge panel at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasberg determined that Noam Shuruk, whose mother kidnapped him to Switzerland after his father joined the Chabad community, is to remain in her care.
The decision gave rise to claims of anti-Semitism and miscarriage of justice by both the State Prosecutor's Office and the father, who say the judges ruled in favor of the mother because the father is Israeli and ultra-Orthodox.
The mother, Isabelle Neulinger, recounted the kidnapping in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. She said she had hired a smuggler for the sum of $30,000 to take her and Noam to Sharm El-Sheikh after they had crossed the border from Israel into the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. [...]
A five-year custody battle ended recently when a 17-judge panel at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasberg determined that Noam Shuruk, whose mother kidnapped him to Switzerland after his father joined the Chabad community, is to remain in her care.
The decision gave rise to claims of anti-Semitism and miscarriage of justice by both the State Prosecutor's Office and the father, who say the judges ruled in favor of the mother because the father is Israeli and ultra-Orthodox.
The mother, Isabelle Neulinger, recounted the kidnapping in an interview with Yedioth Ahronoth. She said she had hired a smuggler for the sum of $30,000 to take her and Noam to Sharm El-Sheikh after they had crossed the border from Israel into the Egyptian Sinai peninsula. [...]
The article states: "The couple met Rabbi David Aziza, a Chabad rabbi who specializes in bringing young residents of Tel-Aviv closer to the Jewish religion...I discovered that they had been spending all their time at the (Chabad) center, where (Shay) would study and stand in the street, convincing people to lay tefillin, with the child in his arms. It was all downhill from there. Aziza, his mentor, affected him. He asked me to go to the mikveh (ritual bath) and I agreed, and then to keep kosher and cover my head, and I did it all because I thought it would help. But Shuruk claims the couple had agreed upon marrying that their home would be properly Jewish, and that it was Neulinger's parents who scared her into thinking they were going too far...Neulinger says, Shuruk began to disappear at night and early in the morning for prayers, as well as to bring her special soap to scrub her hands with before she touched Noam. "He said he wasn't sure my milk was kosher enough because he didn't know what I ate outside the house, and that I wasn't pure enough to touch the baby," she says...She confronted Aziza, and told him she wanted her husband to go back to work to provide for his family. "He looked me straight in the eye and said, 'I suggest you join us or we're going to have a problem'," she says. The final straw, says Neulinger, was when Shuruk ordered her to wear a skirt. It was then she acquired the services of a lawyer..."
ReplyDeleteThe rabbi must take responsibility for this Chillul Hashem. His big mistake was that he failed to realize that non-Israelis have various "escape hatches" and will use them if they have to. He and his disciple have found out the hard way and all of Israel is paying.
This is a massive failure in kiruv rechokim at work, of HOW NOT TO DO KIRUV, and it proves yet again that a lot of what goes on in kiruv is no different in the way "ultimatums" and "decrees" and "fatwas" are handed down by the Taliban and the Ayatollahs. Here is an example of how religious fanaticism and extremism, led by narrow-minded people malfunctions and can poison the atmosphere on a global scale to the detriment of the Jewish people.
The husband in this story is clearly very unstable. He has multiple marriages with children from three wives and the ridiculous photo of him "rollerblading" across Tel Aviv tells it all.
Why are the rollerblades machria? Maybe the wife is also eccentric.
ReplyDeleteThis still a slippery slope to allowing kidnappings.
ReplyDeleteIsrael must protest by refusing to cooperate with EU authorities regarding similar cases that wind up here. That will highlight for them the issues for internal discussion.
I do not think that he only started roller blading after he became religious. She fell in love with him with those roller blades. For some reason the Swiss (who are not know for their philo-semitism) did not side with her. There is a lot that we do not know about. May be he is a jerk, I do not know. This ruling however creates a lot of chaos.
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting if to investigate if Rabbi Azziz has a reputation that proceeds him regarding these issues.
ReplyDelete"A bissel sechel said...Why are the rollerblades machria? Maybe the wife is also eccentric."
ReplyDeleteThe wife is a true tzadekes, she was matzil her son from the father's craziness. The kid would be a total psycho if the father raised him. 99.99% mothers know best and most times judges agree with that.
"Bartley Kulp said...This still a slippery slope to allowing kidnappings. Israel must protest by refusing to cooperate with EU authorities regarding similar cases that wind up here. That will highlight for them the issues for internal discussion."
The mother appears to be 100% lucid and normal and a very sophisticated and highly educated and refined woman. She was even moser nefesh to start becoming a baalas teshuva for the sake of her obvious deep love for her husband but unfortunately he went overboard, too quickly pushed by this particular Chabad rabbi and this is what happened.
Many such rabbis underestimate the emotional and psychological forces they unleash in people when they make people frum and they are totally not equipped to deal with the strong consequences. Somtimes people who are borderline normal, or are just "creative people", become totally nuts when they become frum and they over it up by growing a beard, shukling, saying baruch Hashem to everything, putting on black hats and white shirts and this appears to be the case with this man. The rabbi needs classes in basic psychology!
Maybe kids can be turned on quicker in NCSY or some such movement and even then they are given advice and support not to rush into observances too quickly, but growth cannot be "hurried" it must proceed at its natural pace particularly when it's a married couple that's not religious starts becoming frum not at the same pace it takes great chochma and pragmatism to know how to guide such people and this is a case of how the rabbi failed in his primary mission, based on the information in this article and the way the husband looks like a total eccentric rollerblading all over Tel Aviv and marrying three wives and having kids without thinking of the consequences of his actions.
Yaakov Avinu was also accused of "kidnapping" the daughters and grandchildren of Lavan when he ran away from him without notice. The rabbi should be de-frocked or at least there should be a commission to investigate the roots of this failure, but of course it won't happen, it's just a lot easier to shout "anti-Semitism" and whatnot rather than try to figure out the truth of what really happened and who is really to blame.
I would agree, as I stated above with recipients and publicity regarding the rabbi in this case. Ironically usually Chabad rabbis are fairly secheldik when it comes to dealing with people on various observance levels in their communities. This is especially important when dealing with Russians.
ReplyDeleteThat is why so many people feel comfortable with Chabad because they generally know how to take it easy on people.... Chasing them at bus stations to put on tephillen non-withstanding.